Kingdom Financial Holdings Ltd. may trade shares in Zimbabwe, South Africa and the U.S. after its separation from Meikles Africa Ltd. is complete, Chief Executive Officer Nigel Chanakira said today.

“Once the de-merger is behind us, we can move forward and are looking to take the company further than just Zimbabwe,” Chanakira said in a presentation in Johannesburg today. “I remain confident that in the next month or two we will have a resolution on the de-merger and be able to move on.”

Kingdom Meikles Africa Ltd. was formed in January last year by combining Kingdom Financial and Meikles. Kingdom Meikles Africa said on June 26 the businesses would separate after disagreements between John Moxon, who was the biggest shareholder in Meikles Africa, and Chanakira, Kingdom Meikles’ former chief executive officer.

Zimbabwe’s government on Sept. 18 ordered that Kingdom Meikles Africa, which owns the country’s biggest supermarket chain and best-known hotel, be placed under state administration after being “specified” under Zimbabwe’s anti-corruption laws, which allows the state to assume administration.

Kingdom Financial is looking to raise private capital, having already got about $12.5 million, or about half, of what is needed for the company to “get back to business,” Chanakira said. After that, the Harare-based company may look to raise as much as $100 million so that it can expand into Africa, he added.

Cameroon recently issued Kingdom Financial a license to operate in the West African country and Kingdom also plans a move into South Africa where “we will run a niche operation for the 4 million or so Zimbabweans living there,” he said.

In Zimbabwe, Kingdom Financial is “positive” that it will be able to increase earnings from individual savings accounts in the next two years as the country’s economy begins to improve.

By Bloomberg